[SOLVED] Can't dual boot with Windows 7

Help. I can't install Zorin OS6.4 or OS9 on my PC to dual boot with Windows 7. Both discs have worked before. In fact i can't install ANY Linux OS. And i can't even use any Linux disc in a live session either. All the discs i use i've used before in exactly the same PC, but nothing Linux works any more. Everything just freezes at the logo splash screen. It started happening recently when my Zorin OS9 installation froze at bootup (at the splash screen) a few days ago so i thought i'd take advantage and reinstall Zorin OS 6.4 (which i prefer). And at the moment i'm just left with Win7 which i hate. The only things i can think of are that something has changed in the BIOS or that no(?) Linux OS likes the graphics card (see signature). But as i say everything was fine until a few days ago; none of my PC's hardware has been changed. Thx in advance.

Ever used one of these?

http://www.needledoctor.com/Allsop-DVD- ... egory=1168

If still not working could be optical drive failure!

It can't be my optical drive. I reinstalled Windows 7 using it. Short of buying a whole new mainboard, what can i do? I've tried with the graphics card removed, same problem. What oh what can be causing the problem?

Hi,

go into BIOS and set to "Factory Default" then reboot, then reboot again and enter BIOS once more and make sure (make CD drive first boot option) you can boot from the CD/DVD drive (Change boot device order), save settings and reboot with any Linux disk inserted and see what happens.

Thx Wolfman. Sorry i took a while to reply - i've been working. By factory default do you mean "LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS" which is what my PC's BIOS says.

Anyway, as suddenly as the problem began, it has suddenly lifted. Just on the offchance today i tried a couple of Zorin disks (OS9 and OS6.4) and both worked in the PC (at least I got OS6.4 - my preferred distro - working after updating a nvidia driver for it, from http://www.howopensource.com/2012/10/in ... using-ppa/). Mind you i did suspect all along that the video driver was causinig the problem, so i guess i'm going to have to become familiar with nomodoset just in case. This is such a relief, because i hated only having Windoze available for those four days! Whew!

Thx again for your help.

Hi,

glad to hear it, you might want to check out the Nvidia thread for future reference:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2490

Yes!, this is what I meant "LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS".

Thx Wolfman Have made viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2490 a pdf and saved it to the Cloud for future reference.